Capt. John Smith, the early English explorer, inspired waves of European settlement and centuries of human use of the Chesapeake Bay when he described its shores in 1606 as a "fruitfull and delightsome land." How abundant is the bay today, and what lessons are there in looking back?

On Wednesday, June 8, from 7 - 9 p.m. at the Village Learning Place in downtown Baltimore, Henry Miller of the Maryland Humanities Council will discuss the history of the Bay's use by humans. Miller is director of research for Maryland's state museum at St. Mary's City, the state's first English colony and seventeenth-century capital.

Miller's overview of human consumption of the bay is free and open to the public, and light food and refreshments will be served. The Village Learning Place is at 2521 St. Paul St. For more, go here.

(17th century-style shallop off Annapolis as it reenacts 1608 bay exploration of Capt. John Smith, 2007 Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)